The present invention relates to the field of printers. More specifically, the present invention relates to a self-adjusting paper bucket for a printer that uses rolls of paper.
Various types of printers that print on rolls of paper may be used in different environments that require different paper widths. For example, printers using rolls of paper may include point-of-sale printers, label printers used for inventory control and food preparation, ATM printers, lottery ticket printers, gaming machine printers, and the like. Depending on the environment, different width paper rolls may be used or required.
Prior art printers are either manufactured with a fixed bucket width for one of several standard-sized paper rolls, or use removable screw mounted side guides, manually adjustable side guides, or manually adjustable spindle stops, all which require user adjustment before changing roll size.
It would be advantageous to provide a self-adjusting paper bucket that can accommodate 2 different widths of paper rolls without manual adjustment or user intervention. It would be advantageous to provide a paper bucket that automatically adjusts to accommodate different roll sizes upon the insertion of a paper roll into the paper bucket. It would also be advantageous if the paper size could be sensed once inserted into the paper bucket so that the print mechanism can be configured automatically according to the sensed paper roll size.
The apparatus and methods of the present invention provide the foregoing and other advantages.